Duncan yanks NCLB waiver from Washington state

In an unprecedented but widely anticipated move, the Education Department is pulling Washington state’s No Child Left Behind waiver because the state hasn’t fulfilled the department’s requirements for reform.

Specifically, the state didn’t tie teacher evaluations to student performance metrics in a timely fashion. The state Legislature had an opportunity earlier this year to pass a bill that would preserve the waiver, but failed to do so.

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Washington is the first state to lose its waiver from the law. Gov. Jay Inslee said the move was disappointing but not surprising, given that the department had placed Washington on “high-risk” status in August. Arizona, Kansas and Oregon are also at risk of losing their waivers.

“I appreciate that transitioning back to NCLB is not desirable, and will not be simple,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote in a letter to Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn. “Should Washington obtain the requisite authority to resolve its condition, I would be pleased to reconsider Washington’s request to implement ESEA flexibility at any time.”

Dorn blamed the state teachers union for sabotaging legislative efforts.

“Washington state has been doing great work under our waiver agreement,” Dorn said. “But to get our waiver renewed for next year, the Department of Education was clear: The Legislature needed to amend state law to require teacher and principal evaluations to include student growth on state tests, when appropriate. I agree: Student progress should be one of multiple elements in a teacher’s evaluation. Unfortunately, the teachers union felt it was more important to protect their members than agree to that change and pressured the Legislature not to act.”

Kim Mead, president of the Washington Education Association, pushed back against that interpretation. “As I consider Secretary Arne Duncan’s decision, I can only conclude rescinding the waiver is a failure of federal policy, not of our public schools, students or teachers,” she said. “If we really want to do what is right by our students, we need to meet our constitutional responsibility to fund K-12 public education in Washington state. ”

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said she was “deeply disappointed” by the waiver revocation. Congress, she said, needs to take swift action to revise No Child Left Behind.

“What’s most important now is that we all do our part to rectify this situation,” she said. “From the congressional viewpoint, that means working to update the outdated No Child Left Behind law in a way that works for our state, supports our teachers, and meets the needs of students today. I have made clear time and again that I will work with anyone who is willing to reauthorize ESEA, but to date, making progress on updating this law has been an unnecessarily partisan fight.”

The loss of the waiver has several practical and potentially far-reaching consequences. It means that local districts will have less flexibility to use about $38 million a year in federal Title I funds. They will likely be required to spend millions of that funding on private tutoring services for at-risk students. Another $19 million in Title I money may be reallocated for professional development and teacher training.

The state will also have to notify parents in low-performing schools that they have the right to transfer their children to stronger schools. The state will have to provide transportation for those children, paying for it out of federal funds. Washington also will have less flexibility to direct funding to schools that the state thinks need it most. Instead, it will have to follow federal guidelines for which schools merit priority status.

Perhaps most troubling for the state, the waiver revocation means nearly every school in Washington will labeled as failing under NCLB. Under the law, every child was supposed to be doing math and reading at grade level by this school year — a nearly impossible task. The waivers the department has extended exempted states from meeting that 100 percent proficiency goal.

When Washington formally loses its waiver at the end of the school year, 42 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and a group of eight California school districts will hold NCLB waivers. Applications are still pending from Iowa, Wyoming and the Bureau of Indian Education.

Despite Washington’s waiver loss, Dorn spokesman Nathan Olson said the state agency plans to continue some of its waiver work at the state level. For example, the state plans to continue identifying some high-poverty schools as “priority” or “focus” schools based on low test scores or wide achievement gaps. A new list of such schools is due to come out next week; they will receive state support and intervention.